(1/2) Stay tuned to @hokiesports tomo p.m. for release of our non conference & ACC football opponents thru 2025. Great strength of schedule— Whit Babcock (@WhitBabcock) January 12, 2015
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
Always exciting to see these releases but sure wish we could play FSU and Clemson more often.
I am just personally excited for next year. Hoping to get to OSU in BBurg and since I am in Cincy, Purdue on the road. The expansion has helped me greatly with game at Louisville and ND meaning the Hokies will be within 2-4 hr drives.
In a huge shocker, both ECU and ODU have been dropped from these schedules, with surprise Power 5 opponents Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Penn St added as replacements, along with a shocking announcement that VT and Tennessee have entered into an ongoing scheduling agreement where, the teams will cycle through games at Neyland, Lane, and Bristol Motor Speedway in a 3 year cycle.
To be honest, I would rather not have that. ODU is a great match for recruiting purposes as long as it isn't too often. As for Tenn, I would love to see a hear, there, and Bristol maybe once every decade.
I'd just rather drop any non P5 teams, as they don't really do anything for us. If we need that for recruiting purposes, we're doing something very wrong recruiting-wise.
As for Tennessee... I'd like to see it an annual rivalry matchup, far moreso than I want WVU back on our schedule. Would love it to be an annual matchup with most games in Neyland and Lane with games in Bristol often enough that every 4 year player is guaranteed to play there once. Maybe something like Lane-Neyland-Lane-Bristol-Neyland-Lane-Neyland-Bristol, repeat....
I believe the Bristol game is only possible because the infield is getting major renovations. The normal buildings/infrastructure will be demoed before replacing the old structures with upgrades. I doubt that the racetrack would want to remove those structures every 3rd or 4th year for one football game.
As a fan, however, I am all for it!
Dropping ODU would do nothing but hurt us. PSU and UVA already have had/are scheduling summer and spring joint practices in the area. Ya know what trumps that? Actual games when it counts.
It also gives us just one more week a year where the players might only be at 75% but should be able to pull out the win, those are important in the long run too.
I'd disagree. ODU on our schedule hurts us more than having ECU there every year. At least ECU is a good team year in and year out, despite their lack of national respect. ODU is a no-win situation for us. We shouldn't need to schedule them just for more exposure in the 757.
We had players that were 75% and should have pulled out a win at home against a certain FCS team a few years ago too but we saw what happened there (that hurt to say that)
If other schools werent actively trying to shut us out of the 757 I would agree that we dont need ODU, but they are, and are having success. The fact is the 757 is now a national hotbed for recruiting, and the one advantage we have over Bama, FSU, and tOSU's out there is that we are going to be there for a game.
I dont think we should hold camps there and leave our soon to be world class facilities empty, but other than that actually traveling there once in 5 years to play a game is about the best exposure you can get in the area.
There definitely needs to be as much exposure as possible in the 757. Make it easy for some of the most talented kids in the country to see your team live as well as getting the coaches to see the high school games in the area. To me playing at ODU would be like a semi- home game. Think it makes an impact even more for the high school underclassmen before they go on their college visits.
In most of the country the perception between ECU and ODU isn't that much. ECU's exposure this year mainly came from beating the team that beat tOSU, if VT beats ECU this year then ECU would've gotten no recognition this year or count as a notable win just like ODU nobody would care unless we lost anyways.
People keep saying "we shouldn't need to do x to be better at recruiting or to get more exposure in the 757" yada yada. Y'all, have you seen our records and our recruiting misses over the past few years??? We kinda need to do whatever we can in order to boost exposure in highly sought after recruiting regions, hell let's set up a home and home with USF or UCF. I can't say I've ever been to the 757 area but we should have billboards painted on every freaking corner over there, if we don't we're doing it wrong.
I live in Atlanta and I see random schools' billboards all the time, I see them for Missouri, College of Charleston, I just saw one for TCU the other day. You better believe that has to do with recruiting, we just need to be planting seeds everywhere we consistently get quality recruits. 757, Charlotte, Raleigh, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Del Ray Beach, etc.
This. So much this.
We do not , and really never had the 757 in our pocket. It is an active relationship we need to build, and many of our competitors have upped the ante by holding spring camps in the area working with ODU. Well we need to make sure we are just as good if not better. And better is letting them see an actual game with fans and the entire experience.
How does playing a good team that lacks national respect help us?? its a lose lose.
Because it puts us front and center in the home town of some of the best athletes in the nation, and counters all the other blue chip programs who are there during the offseason.
If 160k fans in one location for one day becomes a once every three year thing that would be awesome!!
It would be like Woodstock for moonshine
I'm going to write in to the Discovery Channel to get a special episode of Moonshiners during the Tech-Tenn game.
Maybe if Whit is reading this he can push the ACC to catch up,with the other conferences and announce conference dates before Jan/Feb.
True that. I work evenings and rotating days. So I need to know what days I have to put in vacation days for. The sooner the better, because then I also know how many days I have left to take off the rest of the year.
My main scheduling wish is for the ACC to adjust the conference schedule so we don't have GT, Miami, and UVA at home in the same year.
The odd years are looking really rough.
Speaking of that, I'd REALLY love it if we could fix the division schedule so we aren't playing both Duke and UNC on the road or at home every year. Just swap one of those with Miami and I'm happy.
As someone who tries to go to as many games as possible, it would also be *really* nice to not have to try to go to both Miami and BC in the same season.
The part that really doesn't make sense is Miami used to be a home game in odd years, but the ACC messed it up without any good reason in 2013 when they needlessly had us play at Miami and home against Duke for a 2nd straight year. They cited this was necessary to setup the conference game rotation with the new league members, although that was only partially true. It was true Tech needed to double up in playing BC away in both 2012 and 2013, but one of the other games they doubled up in 2013 was Miami@Duke. Which means, the ACC could have continued the normal home/away rotation for the VT-Duke, VT-Miami, and Miami-Duke games and everyone would have had the correct number of home & away games without repeating game locations in 2013. I really have no idea why they did that... I think they honestly just didn't think it through all the way.
We could try to get Whit to petition the ACC to fix it back.... the ACC could flip the locations for those 3 games back to the "old" schedule (Miami@VT, VT@Duke, Duke@Miami in odd years, VT@Miami, Duke@VT, Miami@Duke in even years) at any point in time without impacting the schedules for any other teams. To fix it, you would need a season where all three games are played in the same location as the previous year, but after that, you'd be back to the "old" rotation.
Ugh, why did we add wvu?
Because we can say we beat them another 3 times to keep the trophy, and you are fooling yourself if you don't think every one of the 3 games wont be sold out.
Both teams had an open date in 2017 and there really weren't many other good options left for a one-off game for either school.
Because the black diamond rivalry is awesome and hating WVU needs to come back
I got to imagine something is changing with the 2019 schedule. No way Whit is going to have only 5 home games. Too much lost revenue.
I would love to see us stop playing FCS opponents altogether, but that could be leaving too much money on the table.
wait, wait, wait....are you telling me that the FCS opponents are revenue generators for us? This whole time I thought we were paying the little guys big $$$ for those games...wouldn't getting them off the schedule be a money saver more than "leaving money on the table"?
Yeah we pay them, but at the same time it is one more win, which could mean at the end of the year a better bowl with a higher payout.
"Totally"
- JMU
Not to mention that I'd wager VT sells more tickets, concessions, etc when P5 opponents come to town vs. an FSC School.
Yes, except don't forget you only get that moderately increased revenue from 1 game with a P5 school whereas you get 2 games worth of reduced net revenue by scheduling FCS schools.
My guess is that the reason one FCS school gets scheduled each year is because that is the sweet spot revenue-wise. You make more money scheduling 2 home games against FSC schools than a home & away with a P5 school. But you can only schedule one such FCS game a year or else the natives get too restless.
I would say that the main reason for only scheduling 1 FCS team is bowl eligibility. Teams can count 1 FCS win towards the 6 needed for bowl eligibility, after that you're lowering the number of chances to get the 5 FBS wins you need to go to a bowl.
I think a team needs 6 wins against FBS opponents with the caveat that 1 FCS opponent will count towards that win total. Lets say that a team plays 0 FCS teams. They can't make a bowl game with only 5 wins against FBS teams.
That's what rogue is saying. 5 FBS + 1 FCS = bowl eligible. Playing 2 FCS games just means you have a narrower path to win the 5 remaining games that you need.
I read it too quickly and missed that middle part of his quote...it was unclear to me originally but it's clearly stated
Yeah true. But the main point was that the biggest reason one FCS team gets scheduled is money. You make more than scheduling a home and home with a P5 team.
FWIW, for those who didn't listen to the pre-game show for the bowl game, Whit let it slip that Rutgers will be a future OOC game. Maybe he was mistaken, but IIRC he said Rutgers several times.
I'll leave it up to the peanut gallery as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.
Good for fans who live in NYC!
Good for me!
It is good for recruiting. While the south has the reputation as a talent hotbed, I recall reading somewhere that New Jersey produces more NFL guys per capita than any state in the country.
Just looking at our current roster, Malleck, and Billy Ray Mitchell are both from NJ. Lots of good talent, especially in the private catholic schools. ANd if PSU is gonna look into the 7575, why shouldnt we go into their traditional backyard?
there was that Jason Adjepong (sp?) guy too, whatever happened to that dude?
Don't forget Dave Meyer was a NJ product. He had one of the toughest jobs, backup Mike Vick.
heard he's been rocking a bunch of quarterback's Worilds.
Actually Louisiana is number one but theres definitely talent to be had up there. Unfortunately Penn St seems to have NJ pretty controlled
Yeah, I always heard Louisiana. Quick check found this, for those interested:
State Pop. NFL Players
Louisiana 4,533,372 59 1 per 76,837 people
South Carolina 4,625,364 55 1 per 84,098 people
District of Columbia 601,723 7 1 per 85,960 people
Mississippi 2,967,297 34 1 per 87,273 people
Alabama 4,779,736 52 1 per 91,918 people
Florida 18,801,310 200 1 per 94,007 people
Montana 989,415 10 1 per 98,942 people
Georgia 9,687,653 97 1 per 99,873 people
Virginia 8,001,024 55 1 per 145,473 people
Ohio 11,536,504 79 1 per 146,032 people
Cool info,
interesting that the state of Virginia and DC are both represented and part of VT's recruiting footprint.
Well shit. I already had my heart strings torn when we played them in the RAB. My alma mater vs my childhood team. Game day in my house was very tense last time. Well LET'S GO HOKIES!
I can see how it might impact recruitment but I'm not that excited about playing Rutgers. I'd rather schedule a traditional football powerhouse.
I just want Tennessee and West Virginia every year in non-conference, and Notre Dame to quit pansying around and join the ACC full time. Anything else they want to schedule out of conference would be icing on that cake.
Just a reminder, that under the current ACC scheduling arrangement we play Notre Dame more frequently (home&home on a 6 year cycle) than we play FSU, Clemson, Louisville, NC State, Wake Forest, and Syracuse (home&home on a 12 year cycle).
Of course if Notre Dame winds up in our division we'd play them every year.
I definitely think we should prioritize rivalry games more. Rivalry games are the most fun and passionate games in college football and they have a big impact on the excitement of the fan base and the influence it has on recruiting. I agree that we should play West Virginia and Tennessee every year or even alternate them.
Sorry, I typed that on my tablet and auto-correct screwed me over like UVA keeping London another year for UVA's program's potential.
you should have left it....I think it's an awesome word
influncertainty - influencing recruits but not knowing with any certainty if you'll land them come signing day
I'd like to see a 1and1 with UK, South Carolina, or Penn State. VT should play big programs out of conference yearly
Why UK?
If you draw a circle 6 hrs around Blacksburg, UK is one of the biggest names. They suck at football but would carry more prestige than playing mid-majors like ecu, odu, or loluva.
Plus, my mom and sister both went to UK so it would be fun to beat them down and have bragging rights
Are we expecting any major changes to what is already scheduled? I seem to recall some discussion a while back that Wisconsin could be dropped, though I don't remember the reason
Changes announced:
http://www.hokiesports.com/football/recaps/20150113aab.html
You beat me to it. I guess I was too busy studying it.
Wait so in September of 2025 we go to Penn State on the 6th and have a home game against Wisconsin on the 13th? Brutal.
You think that's bad, check out 2020...
Sept 17th we're playing Penn St in Lane. 2 days later we're slated to take on Michigan at the Big House.
12th*
2 day turnaround would indeed be brutal. I would riot.
The updated future schedules are up on the web now. http://www.hokiesports.com/football/schedule/future/
What do Wisconsin and Drew Harris have in common?
We'll never see them play football in Blacksburg?
They both got shut out by Ohio State?
so we play ODU 7 times and ECU 10 times over the next 10 years...
how many times do we play Clemson and FSU?
2 each by my count
f*** the ACC and their bass ackwards scheduling....
I agree. There is a need to go to 9 conference games. You can't expand to 14 teams and expect to stay at 8 conference games. Right now a player can be at the school for five years (four years of eligibility + redshirt) and still never face another team in their own conference.
Assuming all things hold, our future schedules don't look that bad.
Initial thoughts...
Holy wow, 2021 looks like a freakin glorious season. Michigan and Notre Dame at home and WVU on the road. Wow.
I really hope there's a typo in 2020. (Edit: The HokieSports Future Schedules list hadn't been updated, yet. Amended to show the move of Penn St from 9/17 to 9/12)
Only 2023 appears to be a true OOC dud, with potential, if Rutgers or Purdue turn things around.
There must be a typo in 2021 as well, there's no ECU on the schedule
Yeah, they play 1 to 2 power 5 teams (counting ND as a power 5) and in year 2021 they play 3 power 5 teams. And often those power 5 teams are upper echelon teams (Ohio State, Tenn, ND, etc.)
Ticket sales are going to suck in 2017 and 2019 though. Home OOC games against Delaware, ODU, and Furman. But 2021 is the season to buy tickets. 7 home games that year too.
2017 Home Slate
Delaware
ODU
Duke
UNC
Pitt
Clemson
2019 Home Slate
Furman
ODU
Duke
UNC
Pitt
Wake
Ouch, especially in 2019. Would not be shocked to see us try to push out the ECU or ODU games those years to bring in someone of a bigger name to Lane.
I'm a little worried about next year when we play Furman 5 days after playing Ohio State. I know Furman isn't going to be good at all, but we saw what happened last time we played an FCS team with a 5 day turnaround.
we beat Austin Peay?
Yeah, but they didn't have purple as one of their colors.
Ok, I had forgotten AP was a 5 day turnaround. That makes me feel a little better. Still, 5 days after facing Ohio State, win or lose, there will be a lot of guys not back at 100%. Hopefully they will take every game seriously. Even the Furman University Christian Knights.
Biggest thing we've got going for us is probably that win or lose, we won't be getting back to Blacksburg at 2am on Tuesday.
Yes. That is a huge factor to consider. Right on.
We're also big-time loaded up on Big Ten. Where's the SEC? Where's the Big 12? I know where the PAC 12 is, they're all the way the hell over there. But I'm OD'ing on Big Ten over here.
The way I see it, travel to B1G schools is easier than to Big12 schools. Everyone wants to schedule SEC schools and SEC schools don't want to schedule competition. The PAC12, as you said, is on the other side of the country, so we're left with the B1G if we want a P5 conference opponent. Besides, we have WVU for your taste of Big12 competition.
But... but, the SEC West.... aren't they the greatest division in the history of college football? Take out bowl season and they won 471 straight games against unranked nonconference opponents at home when they were favored by at least 14 points. They don't NEED to play any P5 teams, so can't we all just agree that they're the best and give them a permanent playoff spot?
this this this
omg so much this
Too much ODU and ECU.
I wish we would start to just beat the crap out of ECU, maybe a 3-4 year run if beating them by 30+ will make them want to leave the series....but that wont happen on either fronts
I'm surprised we're not ending our series with ECU now that we have Whit. I'd like to see us replace them with Tennessee.
THIS
So frustrating. First fan-unfriendly thing Whit has done/
That's kind of unfair, for all you know he did everything he could but we were already committed in some way.
Tennessee has to "want to" as well. Doubt they have much interest. The SEC invented scheduling for success. And, as a result of marketing indoctrination, those programs get an #SECSKEJOOL pass, so why would VAWLS go looking for another potential loss OOC, especially to a "lesser ACC opponent?"
I honestly don't think Tennessee sees us as a "lesser ACC opponent." I mean yes we've had three down years but they've been in the wilderness for almost a decade. They went 7-6, akin to us, this year. Why do you think they chose to play us in the Battle at Bristol?
I'd say there's a difference between regular home-and-homes with us and the chance to play in the one-off heehaw super bowl for the largest crowd in football history Battle of Bristol.
Also, VAWLS are smart enough to know we're not a "lesser opponent." But what they know and the narrative that's in their interest to perpetuate are two different things.
EDIT: I'll say this... if we beat that ass in 2016, bet that fan base is clamoring for a rematch much more than if TDOT walks away with the win.
money
Adding Rutgers was a bit no hum to me. Agree we are a bit too BIG heavy.
Yes!
Looking forward to facing London in 2021, assuming Richmond gives him his old job back.
2017 is a logical year for a new head coach so he is ready for the challenge of the 2020-2021 schedules.
Road trips already on the long-term calendar:
2015-Greenville
2016-Bristol
2017-Atlanta
2018-Tallahassee
2019-South Bend
2020-Ann Arbor
01_hokie,
When looking through the schedule I had not thought about the coaching change. If 2016 is Frank's last year, it could be a huge bang or a huge bust. I'm excited!
I thought the contract with ECU ended in 2020? Please don't tell me they extended it.
2021 looks to be a special year scheduling wise. Gotta say never thought we would see Michigan in Lane Stadium. That said, never thought OSU would be here either.
Seriously, I'd like to put a deposit down on season tickets for 2021 right now.
As I mentioned earlier, 7 home games that year too, though the down year of our ACC rotation with Duke, UNC, Pitt and Cuse home and UVA, GT, Miami, and BC away.
Technically we have 8 home games. UVA will be in Lane North.